The forecast is for up to 14” of snow and the storm will start in a couple of hours. This co-insides with my weekly trip to get groceries. Needless to say there is almost no parking in the lot so I take the hint and on my way in I grab a cart from a corral and bring it into the store for me to use.

Good plan because the store is packed and the only thing in the cart area is people complaining that there are no carts. (Well think ahead folks, the lot is filled with carts that the overwhelmed employees have no hope in finding the time to retrieve them, grab one as you walk past it and bring it in to use as I did.)

So I fill my cart with goodies and go to the check-out and see something that I have never before seen in my life. All 12 registers are open. And while they did manage to somehow find 12 checkers they have nowhere near that number of baggers.

So I get into a random line that extends from the register to about 20 feet into the aisle and realize that I am going to be there for a while, no problem the employees are doing the best they can. But all around me there is endless crabbing from other shoppers that this is taking so long and that that they should get some more checkers. (To do what? There are no more registers.)

So as I stand there I notice something I find odd. As each cashier rings up a customer’s merchandise the customer just stands there. When finished the cashier must then bag all of the groceries and then place them in the cart for the customer. Needless to say, this takes a long time and makes the lines even longer.

When it is finally by turn I bag most of my own stuff and as the checker finishes ringing up my last item says, “Hey man, thanks for helping pack, it’s nuts today.”

I reply loud enough for many of the griping customers in line behind me to hear, “Well, helping you helps me get out of here faster so we both win.” He says, “I know, right?”

As I leave I notice the next customer in line complaining about how long this is taking while doing her impersonation of a statue.

To me it seems weird to bag my own stuff. In most stores I've been in the cashier bags as they scan. I think I remember the local grocery store when I was a kid putting things farther down from the belt when they scanned and my mother bagging herself it though.

Honestly, I prefer to bag my own things. I like my cold stuff to all be together. But inevitably, no matter how I send them down the line, they get all mixed up and I wind up with ice cream and dried beans in the same bag if a bagger does it.

In my area (Western New York) most places bag as they scan the groceries. It's completely 100% set up that way. If I attempted to bag as they scanned, I would totally get in their way and in their personal bubble. I do remember a billion years ago, that if they needed to, they could put up a quick belt that stretched from the normal belt to the little island behind them, if they had a bagger to help, but that's only if they had a bagger. I have not seen one of those things in FOREVER.

And for those of you who say it's a Costco/Save-A-Lot thing, our local "Bag it yourself" companies just reload your stuff into a new cart, and then you go to a separate area designed for you to bag your own stuff.

Carhop, same here. No reason to waste the cold the ice cream is giving off on something that doesn't care about being cold.

McHell; around here in Florida, it depends on the store. Walmart, they bag as they scan. Most of the grocery stores have a 'catch' area that the stuff ends up in and the bags are at the end of that for the bagger, if any. The cashier can easily reach them but having to turn around to put stuff in bags slows them down a lot, so it's faster if I do it.